Contacting Groups Procedure

This procedure was adopted by the Board in March 2017, after recommendation by the Development Group.
It sets out the process for contacting groups to achieve the following aims.

Aims:(resolutions agreed at the 2016 AGM)

• i. We should enforce the mandatory requirement of each group being represented on Central.
• ii. We should require groups to use at least one viable platform (current options until October 2017 are FD only, FD + TN, FD + Yahoo, FD + Yahoo + TN, Norfolk' after then only FD only, FD+ and Norfolk).
• iii. Groups should confirm annually they still wish to be affiliated.

Responsibilities:

The following people are ultimately responsible for ensuring that contact is made to achieve the aims:

• Central representation - Central Mods
• Use of viable platform - Mentor Team
• Annual confirmation of affiliation - Company Secretary

Contact Admin

This role is specific to this process and will operate within the support of the Mentor Team group, being the preferred person/people to carry out contact, although it can be delegated elsewhere if appropriate. Contact will always be within the context of offering support to help groups and volunteers deliver the best they can for their community and Freegle as an organisation.

Contact Process:

1. Any publicly or previously provided available contact route (email, phone, social media, Freegle forums, letter) can be used that is available to the contact team or their designated individual(s).
2. Depending on the information needed, the group/volunteer will be asked to provide details via questionnaire, email or personal reply.
3. All contact attempts will be recorded, including date, method and responses.
4. If there is a lack of response to information requested or no action taken to adopt required actions, all reasonable efforts will be employed and offers of help and support extended up to a period of 6 months. If there is no response after that, the Board will be informed and recommendations made, including possible disaffiliation.
5. Records will be kept updated as relevant information is received.
6. If, during this process, there is no evidence that the group has been actively moderated for 6 weeks, the Abandoned Group Procedure will be applied.
7. Contacts made should be paced and coordinated to ensure that groups are not receiving excess national communications.

Records:

1. A centralised database will be maintained, which will have restricted access to current Mentor, Support and Board personnel.
2. The Board will be supplied with the details of who has which type of access to the database and this will be updated as access personnel change.
3. The records for each group will include the mandatory information of:
   • Group name (agreed by GAT and recorded via FD)
   • Group Owner names
   • Email address(es) of group representative(s) on Central (known via Central database) (recorded via FD)
   • Which platform(s) the group uses
   • Confirmation that the group wishes to be affiliated to Freegle
   • Any requests for help or support needed, or plans for the future
4. Records will include, where available:
   • Details of all volunteers/trusted people who have access to the management facilities of the group
   • Contact phone number(s)
   • Preferred contact methods
   • Group’s Facebook ID
   • Group’s Twitter ID
5. There are various records kept by GAT, the support mailboxes, the Board and other national personnel which should be supplied on request to help fulfill the aims of this process.

Links:

• Disaffiliation Procedure
• Mentor Team Remit
• Abandoned Groups Procedure
• Data Protection Policy (tba)
• Amendments to this procedure - refer to Document Approval Policy
• Glossary